let me hold you
by Cynthia03
Summary: Because Emma needs to sleep dammit.
Emma throws the door open with a sigh, tiredness and exhaustion seeping through her bones, making everything in her body hurt. Her head is pounding, her heels aching, her calves burning, and her arms are sore.

Running around Underworld does that to a person.

She hears her mother and Ruby talking in the distance as they both curl up on the couch in her parent's loft, her parent's _underworld_ loft, to chat and catch-up, David settled on the armchair. Regina's shoulder hits her arm lightly as she brushes past her to check on Henry in her bedroom upstairs, Emma grateful for her presence as she's way too tired to check on her kid right now.

She's making her way to the kitchen, to brew herself and everyone else some coffee so they can sit down and formulate what the hell to do now as they now know that Hade's weakness is freaking Zelena of all people.

She's opening the cabinets, looking for the coffee when she feels a hand circle her wrist, lowering it down and suddenly she finds herself strutting behind Killian.

"What is it?" she stops, making him turn to face her.

"We're getting you to sleep" he answers, his eyebrows drawn in as if challenging her to protest.

Which she does, of course.

"Killian, I can't, we hav-"

"Emma" he cuts her off, taking a step forward, "Love, the last time I saw you sleep was when you showed up at the Jolly Roger after your parents secret was revealed. Do you realize how long ago that is?"

Emma blinks. _What the hell_ , of course it wouldn't have been _that_ long ago? But as her brain goes through the memories of the past few weeks – staying awake in Camelot making dream catchers as Killian tried to sleep in their bed, lounging in their house or by the docks in Storybrooke as the darkness in her chose isolation, and then the one night, _that_ night, where she lay on her couch holding his ring to her chest as every memory of him and them played in her head, taunting her.

The worst night of her life.

Since then, she'd been worried sick trying to find him – getting a couple of hours or even minutes on her parent's couch before yet another nightmare wracked her body. And the vision she saw today, of her mother dying…how could she possibly want to sleep after that?

"As I said, I'll sleep for weeks once we get back" she argues, lacing her fingers through his.

He sighs audibly, "Emma that's ridiculous and you know it"

She raises her brow at his blunt statement, and before she can argue, he cuts her off again.

"What is bothering you, love?"

"What makes you think something's bothering me?" she retorts back, watching him give her a _you really going to play this_ and for once she isn't glad of how he can read her like an open book.

But then smiles at her, that infuriating smile full of love and adoration and trust and she can do nothing but smile back and tell him.

"I told you about what I saw" she explains, moving closer to him so she could whisper, fully aware that they had a pair of wolf ears now, "I can't okay – I either get nightmares of running you through Excalibur or my mom dying. I can't, I don't want to…" her breath hitches as flashes of those nightmares come to her, the dreadful feeling of somehow being responsible for his death and the possible death of her family, wrecking her.

He brings his arms around her then, his hook running soothingly over her back as she hears his whispered "Oh Emma" to the side of her head before she feels him kiss her there.

"Can you at least try, for me?" he mumbles against her head, and she nods, because the exhaustion _is_ killing her and maybe, just maybe knowing that he's here kind of alive with her, and that her mother is here too, alive and strong and fighting for her, she may just get some peaceful rest.

"Come with me" he presses one final kiss before he untangles himself from her, grabbing her hand and pulling her into her parent's room as Regina is still upstairs with Henry and Zelena.

He shuts the door behind him as she takes her jacket off, letting it slide down to the floor, not even having enough energy to carefully drape in on a table.

She slumps down on the bed, the springs squeaking slightly as she bends down to take her boots off. She's just pulling the zipper down of one of them when Killian kneels in front of her, replacing her hand and carefully peeling her boots off. A knock echoes on the door just when he's taking the second one off and they both turn towards it expectantly, Killian cursing as they couldn't even get a bloody moment's rest.

David peeks his head inside and after checking everything is _proper_ and PG rated, slides inside. He's holding a candle and match and places them on the side-table, lighting it before he turns to Emma.

"These help your mother with nightmares" he explains, offering a smile to the two.

"We'll try to keep it quiet. Good night" he nods before leaving the room, only giving Killian the slightest warning look.

Killian chuckles once he looks at Emma again, "Well at least he didn't ask me to leave this time."

"Yeah" Emma grins, remembering the night during those six peaceful weeks when David insisted on Killian walking back to Granny's at three in the morning after the two had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie and had been woken by her brother's wails. Snow had insisted he just stay the night, but David was firm on having him go back to Granny's, even offering to drive the pirate if it was too much trouble walking out in the cold at three a.m.

Finally David had agreed to allow him to sleep on the couch. (He'd snuck into Emma's room once he could hear the prince's snores).

"Would you like to take these jeans off?" he asks, no hint of teasing in his voice, but just genuine concern.

"No" she moves his hand away from her thigh, "I'd rather be dressed if Hades suddenly decides to pay a visit"

"Aye, true" he nods, standing up to allow her to scoot back on the bed, fluffing the pillow before allowing her head to fall on it.

He moves to cover the blankets all the way to her neck before he shrugs his own jacket and boots off, placing his hook beside the candle before he slips into the covers with her.

Emma turns towards him as he offers his arm and she rests her head on it, her hand coming to rest on his chest as his braced arm hugs her waist, pulling her closer to him until their chest are pressing and their legs are tangled.

"When was the last time you slept?" she asks, his face close enough that she can make out every line, every freckle on it.

He smiles sadly, "The night before you sacrificed yourself to the darkness"

"I'm sorry" she blurts out, guilt clouding her brain as inadvertently this is her fault. He's here because of her. They're all here now because of her.

"Shhhh" he kisses her forehead, "I'm hearing none of that, Swan. We've talked about it"

"Yeah, but-"

"Eh, we're here to get some restful sleep" he cuts her off, pressing a kiss to her forehead, then eyes, then nose and just before he's about to kiss her lips, she tilts her head up.

"Kind of hard getting any sleep when you keep kissing me" she teases, running her fingertips from his chest to his jaw, scratching his scruff.

He smiles, "Alright then, I'll stop"

"I didn't say that" she smirks before pressing her lips to his, kissing him softly and tenderly, just a reassurance that they're here and that they'll make it.

"Now sleep" he says firmly, pressing his cheek to her head as she nuzzles into the crook of his neck, allowing her eyes to fall shut.

It's the first time she sleeps without nightmares.

When she wakes, he's still sleeping, and after pressing a kiss to his cheek, she buries her head in his neck, as he deserves peaceful rest too.

They've been through a lot.


End file.
